Brave and Crazy

In an after-screening interview and in the press material, much was made of the fact that Caouette assembled the film in three weeks. Encouraged by John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and a film festival deadline, Caouette powered through his archives, forging a nonfiction film about himself instead of the more fictional work he had initially intended. He made the deadline, and the film went to Sundance, where it was warmly received. But three weeks was not enough for this material. More time and more attention could have spared us the titles, some of the musical montages and the sense that the film, while hardly long, feels endless. It is a bold and new work, but it needed more care.